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that sounds like a character name out of an Asterix book
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Aug 16, 2016 06:21
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Aces High posted:that sounds like a character name out of an Asterix book He was the chief who united the Gauls against Rome (though he failed, if I recall my history) so yes, he WAS a name out of an Asterix book.
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Aug 16, 2016 06:25
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Shei-kun posted:Give everyone a pokemon name Oh no, Col. Electrode blew himself up with a grenade!
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Aug 16, 2016 06:28
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Bruceski posted:He was the chief who united the Gauls against Rome (though he failed, if I recall my history) so yes, he WAS a name out of an Asterix book. And then when he threw his weapons at Ceasar's feet, THEY LANDED ON HIS FEET. ha ha HA HA ha ha ha. 
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Aug 16, 2016 06:44
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Aces High posted:that sounds like a character name out of an Asterix book I was gonna say some kinda obscure venereal disease, myself
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Aug 16, 2016 06:54
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Ciaphas posted:I was gonna say some kinda obscure venereal disease, myself Well, he is French. ... but I do agree it's a really good name.To be fair, the Asterix books are full of good names, and lots and lots of puns that sadly do not always translate well.
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Aug 16, 2016 23:28
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Scribbleykins posted:Well, he is French. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not going out of your way to read Asterix in the original French, you're not doing enough to feel arbitrarily superior to others.
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Aug 16, 2016 23:34
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So I know Jade & Guava are generally against using the Ranger's concealment tree, but how is their feasibility in general when using them in terror missions to extract hostages? I trained up a ranger down the conceal tree for completionist sake and I noticed in a recent terror mission they are really good at getting the pre-requisite hostages without getting busted. Sure it puts me at a gun down, but the tactics from this LP have helped to manage that.
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Aug 16, 2016 23:40
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I'd advise having some way to flush out Faceless, but yeah that's not terrible.
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Aug 16, 2016 23:43
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Green Intern posted:I'd advise having some way to flush out Faceless, but yeah that's not terrible. Scanning protocol is great for that.
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Aug 17, 2016 00:27
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seaborgium posted:Scanning protocol is great for that. This is my preferred method, however, having a concealed unit for a mission like that where you don't start out concealed can be a huge benefit. Early game I think blade skills are more useful, and late game (when the ranger concealment tree is useful) you've got many other options to help you out despite concealment being good.
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Aug 17, 2016 00:54
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GuavaMoment posted:This is my preferred method, however, having a concealed unit for a mission like that where you don't start out concealed can be a huge benefit. Early game I think blade skills are more useful, and late game (when the ranger concealment tree is useful) you've got many other options to help you out despite concealment being good. I've been taking to bringing battle scanners with me for faceless reveals. Less useful now due to the more aggressive playstyle mandated by 2, but every time I run into a cluster of three or four civilians I toss one and have yet to be disappointed.
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Aug 17, 2016 01:04
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You know, I think I can easily make an argument for Phantom over Blademaster. Phantom is the preferred choice of Beaglerush. Yes, that is my entire argument. I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Aug 17, 2016 09:02
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Cythereal posted:I've been taking to bringing battle scanners with me for faceless reveals. Less useful now due to the more aggressive playstyle mandated by 2, but every time I run into a cluster of three or four civilians I toss one and have yet to be disappointed. Would tossing battle scanners bring someone out of conceal? My experiment with grenade-launched scanners failed miserably but a Conceal Ranger with Scanners sounds somewhat viable for terror missions.
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Aug 17, 2016 09:46
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Stephen9001 posted:You know, I think I can easily make an argument for Phantom over Blademaster. Counterpoint - HANZO STEEL.
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Aug 17, 2016 09:51
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Highwang posted:Would tossing battle scanners bring someone out of conceal? My experiment with grenade-launched scanners failed miserably but a Conceal Ranger with Scanners sounds somewhat viable for terror missions. Tossing scanners does not break concealment.
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Aug 17, 2016 12:57
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Stephen9001 posted:You know, I think I can easily make an argument for Phantom over Blademaster. Yeah, and he's playing on Legendary so swords lose a lot of their OHK appeal.
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Aug 17, 2016 15:39
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Someone mentioned it earlier but the main reason to get Phantom in my opinion is that it gives you a cloaked Ranger even during non-stealth missions, so you actually have a scout at all times
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Aug 17, 2016 17:02
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Scouting is for people with insufficient quantities of explosives Doing the "complete a mission using soldiers of one class" achievement with six grenadiers was hilarious, let me tell you
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Aug 17, 2016 17:23
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Psion posted:Scouting is for people with insufficient quantities of explosives Six grenadiers, all in WAR armor.
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Aug 17, 2016 18:48
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Canuck-Errant posted:Six grenadiers, all in WAR armor. I did that achievement with six rangers in wraith armor.  I beat the game myself for the first time last night, and the final mission was hilarious once I had myself a mind-controlled gatekeeper and hacked sectopod. "Anything you can do, I can do better" has always been a staple of this series.
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Aug 17, 2016 18:55
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I only just noticed that the aliens' "Unification Day" is when they first started abducting people, rather than the day that Earth surrendered to them. At least, that's what it looks like based on the starting dates in the two games. XCOM: Enemy Unknown begins on March 1, 2015, when the aliens drop a bunch of abduction pods on a major city; in response to this the Council authorizes the activation of the previously-dormant XCOM Project and the Skyranger immediately launches for its first mission. XCOM 2 begins with Operation Gatecrasher, which in both the tutorial and non-tutorial missions is timed to occur when the aliens are tied up with the celebrations on the 20th anniversary of Unification Day. The non-tutorial version of Operation Gatecrasher takes place exactly 20 years after the first abductions, on March 1, 2035. The tutorial version is a bit more fiddly, since you don't get to see any dates until the Avenger lifts off on March 8, 2035, but enough happens during that missing week -- the Commander undergoing major surgery, the recovery and installation of the power converter, and the like -- that Gatecrasher still could have occurred on March 1. So basically, the aliens really don't give a poo poo when humanity surrendered; the meaning of the holiday is the day that they showed up and started loving around. Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Aug 18, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 21:52
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Well they did drop Silly String pods during all those abduction missions. It was a party from day one!
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Aug 17, 2016 22:13
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Out of curiosity, is Jadestar's mission name mod up on the workshop? If not, is there any chance he'll put it up there? I too wish to experience the wide berth of names he has planned out.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:21
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Psion posted:Doing the "complete a mission using soldiers of one class" achievement with six grenadiers was hilarious, let me tell you I also picked grenadiers for that one. I was a bit short of cover towards the end. XCOM: Your insurance won't pay for our visit.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:54
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zyxophoj posted:I also picked grenadiers for that one. I was a bit short of cover towards the end. 
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Aug 17, 2016 23:04
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Yeah, with six grenadiers planting the X4 charge was a bit superfluous at the end, I'll say that much
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Aug 18, 2016 00:26
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Psion posted:Yeah, with six grenadiers planting the X4 charge was a bit superfluous at the end, I'll say that much According to Jake Solomon, it's because each facility has extensive underground sections that you need the X4 charge to blow up.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:29
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X-Com Apocalypse has a lot of flaws, but the terrain destruction engine is not one of them, it's the Red Faction: Guerrilla of the X-Com saga.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:37
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Cythereal posted:According to Jake Solomon, it's because each facility has extensive underground sections that you need the X4 charge to blow up. I wish we could see/invade those. It always seemed so weird to me that the facilities are empty. I know it's just limitations, and it's almost impossible to reconcile background staff and machinery milling about with turn-based gameplay, but that's something that really gets to me about this one. No one is in the facilities, no work is happening, traffic is frozen on the roads, etc. I never noticed it in EW, I guess because if aliens showed up on an abduction mission I'd probably either peel out or abandon the car if I couldn't? Whereas we're supposed to be hidden coming into these strangely static environments.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:38
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I think part of it is that missions don't really take that much time. Even creeping around the maps wouldn't take more than a few minutes, real time. As for why vehicles don't move that's a design choice that also allows you to use them as cover. If vehicles were mobile they'd be hazards, and the game can be hard enough without having to worry about civvies running you over with their cars.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:52
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The mission's not complete until you plant that XCOM-branded explosive. How else will the aliens truly understand their defeat?
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Aug 18, 2016 05:01
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 Operation Wei Shen's Cummings Welcome back to a very special episode. We're going deep for some plot today and the video is going to be a long one. It's just over an hour long and it doesn't have any easy cut points so buckle up for this one. We are going to the Blacksite and we are going to see what ADVENT has been up to! Mechanically the Blacksite doesn't really have anything new. It's nice in the sense that you start concealed and you don't have a timer. Other than that though, there isn't much to say about it other than it is a long map with a lot more alien pods than have likely been encountered in a single mission thus far, DLC missions not counting. However it's a big plot mission and even Bradford will speak up telling you to prepare for a tough mission so there is no reason to be caught unprepared by the difficulty or length of this mission. The only unique things I can think of about the mission is that it is an object recovery mission that doesn't require hacking anything, and the exit point is predetermined. There aren't a lot of maps where the evac zone is pre-deployed for you. Those minor things aside the mission is really just your first endurance mission where there are likely to be more than enough alien pods show up to punish mistakes with attrition. So far a mission has been three, maybe four alien pods, if you make a mistake or two, the mission is probably over before you really need to worry about things. This mission is long enough that continued mistakes will grind you down and any loss in the field puts that much more pressure on the remaining soldiers. That all said, there is nothing dangerously new about the mission that should cause problems, just keep in mind that it's a long mission and you will be seeing more aliens until the very turn you evac. On that subject, let's take a moment to discuss my medical condition. GRCS, or Giant Robotic Crab Syndrome. The term was coined by Yahtzee during a Zero punctuation review, and can be most expediently explained by the original video. Watch it here, for about 30 seconds. It applies to many games, and Guava triggers me on it several times throughout the video. Because I know there will be more aliens later on in the mission I am constantly hesitant to use grenades and rockets and instead seek to kill the enemies in front of me with the minimal use of non-replenishing resources, ie not using grenades or rockets which I only have a limited number of. This can be a good and bad behavior, it just comes down to the circumstance. Knowing when it is safe to hold back on resources is great, because if you can kill everything and not spend anything then clearly things worked out in the best way. It is important however to know when it is a smart idea to start using your limited use tools to prevent situations from getting worse or your soldiers dying. It can be a fine juggling act sometimes but it is a skill players should be aware of and consider at every encounter. SPARK Skill choice, Knight rank Rainmaker vs Strike Rainmaker is a pretty cool skill, adding a sizeable +2 area of effect to all heavy weapons it fires. This makes rockets much, much bigger and the other heavy weapons like cones or even single lines much bigger too. The downside I perceive is that it's very limited use. It is only going to effect things maybe once or twice a mission tops, and even then the increased radius wont necessarily be the difference between hitting all of the targets or not. It's still good because it boosts very important limited use attacks, but I think it comes up short of the skill it's competing against. Strike is what we know and love. It's like run and gun, if the gun was the SPARKs fist. Much like R&G or Slash, Strike lets the user make a double move and then attack an enemy. That alone is pretty huge, but it comes with a few more benefits of it being on the SPARK. Since it's melee and SPARKs don't use cover you can use it to punch entrenched enemies in high cover and not worry about ending your turn in the middle of no mans land out of cover. It sadly has a reuse timer now that it did not have in the first game, but it was really, really powerful back then so it has a bit of a cool down timer now. It combines well with overdrive to give you another option for your actions instead of just shooting three times (Suck it additive aim, you keep getting worse and worse). All around a great skill with a lot of very common uses that will make a lot of impact on the fight. Winner, Strike. Support Skill choice, Lieutenant rank Filed Medic vs Scanning Protocol Like most Support skill picks this choice is mostly predetermined by your other previous picks. If you have Medical Protocol you better pick Field Medic, it's just stupid not to. If you went the combat hacker route, you are probably going to pick Scanning Protocol. However I am not a big fan of Scanning Protocol, it provides a single use ability that isn't nearly as mission impacting as I'd like for single use skill like this. The extra medkits can easily keep soldiers in a fight and save lives, Scanning Protocol can be really handy once, but I don't think it's going to be on the same life saving potential as Field Medic. So even if you are going combat hacker consider Field Medic for a moment, even with out the Gremlin to deliver the healing mist it still means having 4 more medkits when you deploy and once you have predator armor you can have a medkit and skulljack on a combat hacker and not be losing anything for it. Winner... Depends on which path you already picked. During the video Guava mentions an 'Action Muton' from the stream save file I play with on occasion. Here is that video, it's a highlight on my twitch page and is about 4 minutes long of one determined Muton to not give a gently caress about me trying to kill it.
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Aug 18, 2016 09:06
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I guess "True Roman Testicles" is a reference to your Shadow of Rome LP? I recall you and your girlfriend discussing the HBO Rome show in which there was some quote about "true Roman bread for true Romans" or something like that.
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Aug 18, 2016 10:31
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in honour of killing with all his melee attacks, and missing all his shots: Hulk "Crab Hands" Hogan (also because of your Giant Robotic Crab syndrome)
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Aug 18, 2016 10:36
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I love Hulk Hogan, he's not good at shooting, he missed Julian's Sectopod at point blank range, but he's incredibly good at choping aliens with his sword. That makes me think, what's his background? I like to imagine his passion was cooking and his secret amibition to become the Iron Chef, so he practised his knife skills hard, but then the Aliens appeared and invaded our world. The new Advent regime developed new meal pills, rendering traditional cooking obsolete and crushing Hogan's dreams into dust. Armed only with his seething rage and awesome knife skills, Hogan joined the Resistance, ready to fight for Humanity.
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Aug 18, 2016 11:27
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Man, I've done this mission 3 times (granted two of those times were "can my computer run this game yet" runs) and every time I get furious how none of my units will never be able to action dive out of the obvious back windows. The map layout doesn't help either cause honestly it feels like the devs were inferring possible escape from there. On the note of GRCS/Elixir Syndrome/What have you, I've dealt with that a lot before myself. However, nowadays I find myself being a lot more aggressive with useage in general and in XCOM 2 it really helps with making the mission timers a non-issue. It probably helps that frost bombs are super OP and a stealth-ranger with Scanners/Flashbangs tip the scales, but with XCOM 2 it really feels like I never run into the legendary Robot Crab......except with Julian. As for Hulkamania, his nickname should be RUNNIN' WILD
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Aug 18, 2016 11:46
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Holy poo poo Action Muton. I'm kinda sad he died now, but that is an incredible highlight and everyone should watch it. Also, I like the idea of Alessandra "Not Stirred" Margottini Highwang posted:As for Hulkamania, his nickname should be RUNNIN' WILD Seconded
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Aug 18, 2016 11:50
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On Rainmaker, I assume there is a later skill or upgrade that gives the SPARK an additional use of it's heavy weapon? It would be odd if your Grenadiers could get double grenades, but sparks not double rocket (or whatever else they can fire. I've not seen many heavy weapons yet)
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Aug 18, 2016 11:55
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The first time I used the skulljack was at the end of this misson. It did not go well...
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Aug 18, 2016 12:48
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